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Monday, March 05, 2007

One of the aphorisms used (read: stolen from elsewhere) in Chaos Magic is 'Nothing is true, everything is permitted.' Now, there has been debate by Chaotes as to what exactly this means. Generally it is seen as a wake-up call to the fact that there's noone judging us, and we're totally free. It has been interpreted as a totally amoral claim (ie: do whatever you want, there's no right or wrong), while others have suggested that because nothing is true, you *can* go out on a killing spree, because nothing can stop you. However, that only means evebn *more* that you have to think about what you are doing, and why.

However, this topic isn't about *that* consideration (although it is still worthy of a debate - if you wish to debate that, a new thread can certainly be started). In Chaos magic belief is seen as a tool. Hence paradigm shifting. However, where does this leave us with morality? If someone (for example) offers you a stack of money to kill someone with magic, it's certainly possible to adopt a paradigm or identity where you no longer object to killing someone. So, if morality can be changed, and Chaos magic embraces experimenting with alternative points of view... How does one decide what is right? How do you accept the arbitrariness of opinion and morality, while still saying 'I'm sticking to *this* point of view'?

In a more simple form: Having embraced the ability to change moral guidelines and rules, what new meta-rules and meta-guidelines must you develop in order to deal with this freedom? Is such a thing even possible?